Street Legal 69 A/S Camaro

[exracer29]

Jon,
I have been a member/ lurker since 2011 and have fallen in love with the Trans-Am forum. There is so much awesome history and photos here. I have been wanting to build a Trans-Am style car for the street since the late 1980's early 1990's when Hot Rod magazine did a spread on one of the Penske 68's. This was long before "Pro Touring" came along, but I always thought it would be cool to do.

Around the time I joined I was doing a frame up restomod 1968 Camaro that I bought from my brother. It was built with some vintage Trans-Am influence but in the back of my mind I knew I would end up selling it back to my brother (which I did) so I didnt get too wild with it. The "Pro Touring" thing is now in top gear, but the expense of building one is out of my reach. So, since alot of the PT guys look to Trans-Am as the Grandfather of the trend, I figured building a new car with vintage technology would be a lot cheaper, so that is what I've set out to do.

Before I go much further however, I wanted to know if you would like me to continue here with a new thread, or if you would prefer I reply the the older existing thread on Street Trans Am cars. Also, this is only my fourth post, and I know some forums wont let new members post photos until they have a certain amount of posts.

Anyhoo- let me know if you prefer I continue with the new thread or the existing one and I will post some pics and see what the folks here think.

Thanks
Dean

[Jon Mello]

Dean,

Thanks for posting and I'm glad you are a fan of the forum. It sounds like you have a project that many here would enjoy seeing. I appreciate you asking the questions that you did and I think posting your pics and info in this thread is just fine. I look forward to what you have to share.

[exracer29]

Jon- thanks for the reply.
As I said I love this forum and as I was born in 1968 the series in its original configuration was long gone by the time I became interested in cars. But since that Hot Rod issue, I have spent considerable time pondering how to build a street legal version of a T/A car. Of course once the internet hit, then-wow, information overload.
So, I went at the project as if I was actually building a privateer car for myself to race had I been in my 20s or 30s in 1972ish. What I ended up doing was going for a circa early '70 era car, maybe '72 or so. A 2-3 year old car from a junkyard at that time would have been cheap and used parts plentiful. 
It would be far less expensive to build an independent car than trying to build a factory "clone" as I wouldnt have to mortgage my house for a crossram intake or minilite wheels for example.

Around this time last year I located a '69 Firebird in Montrose, Colorado. It was pretty beat up but the tub itself looked pretty good. The drive train and interior were long gone and the price was substantially less than a '69 Camaro would have been in the same condition. I live in Arizona so I bought it basically unseen other than photos on Craigslist. Around the same time I found a complete 1969 Camaro front clip in Montrose as well for dirt cheap. So, I was on my way. I got the car to Phoenix and started the transformation into a 1969 Camaro. I replaced the tail light panel with a 69 Camaro piece and replaced the 'bird quarters with Camaro ones, and voila' 1969 Camaro.

I have done all the work on the car myself in my garage and with a pretty tight budget, but going back to the original concept of an independent entry, I think it looks pretty good and captures the spirit of the series pretty well. This car is a tribute to the series and is a completely fictional car. Its not a "clone" at all. I took the plethora of information garnered from this forum and photo downloads from the internet and combined several tidbits from different cars into mine.

[exracer29]

68 I did for my brother

[exracer29]

sorry- photo posting takes getting used to. engine pic in previous post is from my current car. addtl pics of current car

[exracer29]

couple more shots

[BULLITT65]

Hey just read your posts. The 68 turned out nice. Your 69 Project is well underway and looks like your going to be on target with it.  For being on a tight budget, I would say your doing an awesome job so far. Keep the pics coming..

[exracer29]

Thanks. Its been a really fun project so far. I am hoping to get the front clip put on this coming weekend, so hopefully have some additional pics after that. I have lots of buildup pics, but I should probably start another thread somewhere else if I want to track all that. Just for kicks- here's what I started with:

[1109RWHP]

Look good so far!  I am still surprised that there are so few street T/A cars out there. Everything I see at shows or cruise nights has drag racing theme to it.  One of these days my T/A Boss 302 will be done. Working on the motor build right now.

[exracer29]

Thanks- I'm really looking forward to driving it. I know what you mean though about the street TA thing not catching on. I think the pro touring trend has filled the gap. I'll try to do my part to get the trend started here in Phoenix- hah!

[Jon Mello]

Dean, I agree with the others and I think you're doing a great job. I think your Firebird roller was a great platform to start your project with. I guess the one thing I'd say is the T/A cars were required to run on rims no wider than 8" back in the timeframe you're shooting for. Your back rims look like they could be 10". Then again, you aren't required to "follow the rules" with something like this.

It looks like you didn't cut the trunk floor for a fuel cell. Are you going to stick with a stock tank? Out of curiosity, what are you going to do about exhaust?

I think your brother's car looks good too. It's certainly more friendly to its driver and passenger with no cage and a full interior.

[BULLITT65]

I think everyone will like your T/A car.... well except for the firebird guys...hahaha,

(They probably would have preferred a Vintage Titus firebird T/A car).

From past pics, I think it was one of the few (or one?), but after the 69 season it may have been history?

[exracer29]

Jon- yes the rears are 15x10. I might be able to return to 15x8's, but I really wanted to do the rear flares and I wanted the the fattest rubber back there I could when I do them. I was really trying to replicate the flares on the American Airlines Chamberlain car when he took it down under. I know the Aussies were running 10" wide wheels around then although from what Ive read here he was still running 8's. Anyhoo, it looks like a BUNCH of rubber back there and I love the way it looks and sits. 'Course mine didnt come out quite the same...
The nice thing about this car is I can go back and re-do things and not be too broken up about it.
As far as the tank- I would really like to run a fuel cell, but as the car most likely never see any track time and budget constraints I will probably stick with the stock tank for now. I may fabricate a sheet metal tub to bolt on from below so it looks like there is a cell back there.
And the exhaust- I cant wait to get going on that. I will be true out the side exhaust although I would like to have both pipes dump on the passenger side like the Dick Hoffman/ Dave Horchler 1970 #48 TA Camaro. I have no illusions as to the noise that will be inside that un-carpeted and sound deadened interior, so hopefully dumping it out the pass side will be a little better.
I plan to run "cherry bomb" style mufflers. I actually built a set of road race pipes for the '68 but I had to really beat them up to get them to hug the floor pans. On the 69 I cut out sections of the pinch weld since the cage should mitigate any structural loss there (if there is any loss in the first place). Anyhoo, that should allow me to tuck the pipes up closer to the floor. Also the set I did for the 68 were 4" and on the 69 I will run 3" max. I have some pictures of the set I did for the 68 at work- I'll post them up tomorrow.
Thanks again for all the kind words. I was able to get the front clip on this weekend and get some sponsor stickers on. Hopefully the nose will settle a bit more- sits a little nose high right now. I plan to put some beefier tires up front I would like to switch the wheels out for 200s style wheels, but the rallies will do for now. I know some of the independent guys ran steelies early on, but by '72 or so, maybe this was no longer the case.

[exracer29]

Road race pipes for the 68. Summit glass packs with a 4” outer shell. Welded 4” exhaust tubing to shell. Because of pinch weld had to cut slits in pipe and beat the tops of the tubing to get the pipes closer to the floor pan. Will use 3” pipe on the 69 and I notched out the pinch weld, so should come out nicer and be tight up against the pan.

[exracer29]

and on the 68- kinda hard to see